* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Comet 103P/Hartley 2

Blobrana · L

Malcolm Hartley

Blobrana · L

RE: Comet 103P/Hartley 2

Blobrana · L

The NASA/EPOXI team who will be managing and guiding their 3m spacecraft to within 700Km of the nucleus of Comet 103P Hartley/2 are now safely located at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California, where the excitement is growing ahead of only the 5th close approach flyby of a comet in history.
Our 2m telescope in Hawaii is now also set and ready for a whole day of imaging this momentous event. As the spacecraft approaches, both Faulkes North and the Epoxi spacecraft will be taking almost continuous images, but in the case of Epoxi, due to the logistics of orientation, will not be able to downlink these until some time after its closest approach.
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Blobrana · L

Credit: NASA/JPL

Twelve radar images of Comet Hartley 2 taken by the Arecibo Observatory from 25 - 27 October, 2010.

Blobrana · L

Space Radar Provides a Taste of Comet Hartley 2

Exactly one week before the world gets a new look at comet Hartley 2 via NASA's EPOXI mission, observations of the comet by the Arecibo Planetary Radar in Puerto Rico have offered scientists a tantalizing preview.
Scientists using Arecibo's massive radar dish began observations of Hartley 2 on Oct. 24, just four days after the comet made its closest approach to Earth since its discovery in 1986. (On Oct. 20, the comet came within 17.7 million kilometres, or 11 million miles, of Earth). The observations are scheduled to continue through Friday, Oct. 29.
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Blobrana · L

On Oct 16th, a pair of NASA all-sky cameras caught an unusual fireball streaking across the night sky over Alabama and Georgia. It was bright, slow, andhere's what made it unusual - strangely similar to a fireball that passed over eastern Canada less than five hours earlier. The Canadian fireball was recorded by another set of all-sky cameras operated by the University of Western Ontario (UWO). Because the fireballs were recorded by multiple cameras, it was possible to triangulate their positions and backtrack their orbits before they hit Earth. This led to a remarkable conclusion:
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NASA Hosts Media Teleconference To Preview Comet Encounter

NASA is hosting a media teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT on Tuesday Oct. 26, to preview the EPOXI mission's upcoming flyby and study of the comet Hartley 2. The Nov. 4 encounter will provide the best, extended view of a comet in history.
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Blobrana · L

Scientists used Suprime-Cam at Subaru Telescope to catch the comet 103P/Hartley after long shut down of the telescope. This summer Subaru Telescope underwent primary mirror recoating, modification to its top, overhauling of many actuators, and so on. Since the distance to the comet from the Earth is small and the apparent movement of the comet on the sky is large, non-sidereal tracking was used during this observation based on the orbital parameters of the comet. This image is composed from the dataset of three different filters; g'-band (480nm), r'-band (620nm), and z'-band (900nm), and colour coding is allotted for blue, green, and red, respectively. Since the comet was moving from the lower right to the upper left compared with the background stars, each background star appears as triple points with three colours along the direction of the comet movement.
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Blobrana · L

Comet Hartley 2